Paypal looking for bank details....

I bought a small item on eBay just now and wanted to pay via Paypal - have been using eBay and Paypal for several years with reasonable regree of satisfaction. However when I clicked to pay I got the following message from Paypal

"Security Measures

We are currently performing regular maintenance of our security measures. Your account has been randomly selected for this maintenance, and you will now be taken through a series of identity verification pages.

Protecting the security of your PayPal account is our primary concern, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause."

It's probably paranoia but I was wondering could this be phishing but a hacker. Normally I thought reputable companies don't ask for your bank details over the web?

Any advice appreciated
Roy

How about trying to contact Paypal either by e-mail or telephone

It does sound rather like phishing to me. How do you normally pay for your paypal? By bank account or credit card?

Check the address you are being sent to - does it look like a paypal address? (Something like https:\\secure.paypal.com or some such).

If you think you have been hacked (it will almost certainly be on your pc), download spybot (www.spybot.com), install it, get the latest updates and run it.

If you still find nothing, I would agree with mercman - contact paypal. As you say, this is not something they should be doing over the web.

I think you can be sure that this is a scam.

A quick search on Google will reveal that emails with the exact text that you posted have been identified as phishing attacks as long ago as 2003.

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/paypal.asp

Like you said a reputable bank will not need to contact you for personal information in an unprompted way like this. If you have any doubt you can call Paypal. But I'm pretty sure you can consign this to your Spam folder.

onekeano said:

I bought a small item on eBay just now and wanted to pay via Paypal - have been using eBay and Paypal for several years with reasonable regree of satisfaction.

Click to expand...

Where are you clicking on the 'Pay' button? I as a rule now never use the the pay buttons on emails. But log on to ebay it's self, check the security cert and check that the address is correct, before entering by password.

1) How about trying to contact Paypal either by e-mail or telephone - it's almost impossible to contact PP via phone and when I click to get thru to the security centre the same message appears.
2)How do you normally pay for your paypal? By bank account or credit card? - Credit Card
3) Check the address you are being sent to - does it look like a paypal address? (Something like https:\\secure.paypal.com or some such). Yes, it starts [broken link removed]

Will try contacting PP again now....thx for teh advice so far.

Roy

Looks like it was genuine - the person I spoke to could see that I was getting that message and told me to key in the bank details and told me the account was now verified and I would not be asked again.

Still not to comfortable and relayed that message but sounded like she couldn't care less - have to say they are probably one of the most difficult companies to work with if you run into a problem!

Thanks for the help
Roy

onekeano said:

your bank details over the web?

Click to expand...

Can you confirm or not that it was your credit card details they wanted and NOT your bank account details. It would seem fine that they get you to confirm your credit card but unless you were a seller there should be no need to give your bank account details.

Definitely the first question was in relation to my FULL BANK ACCOUNT number.

Roy

Paypal sent my sister a similar message recently - but when she contacted them they only asked for a copy of her driving licence ?? which she had to fax to them. They did not ask for her bank account or any other details. However, it took over 2 weeks to get her paypal account back working again.